Homeowners Insurance -- 7 Sure Tips

Contrary to what you might be made to believe, it's a lot easy to attract a lower rate. All you need to achieve this end are little bits of information (that you'd have to implement, though). Here are a number of things that will help you reach this goal...

1. Don't insure your home along with the land it is built on as this is more expensive but quite needless. Those who ignorantly do this are paying a lot more than would be of any benefit. They just insure their house for its complete value without subtracting the cost of the land.

For those who have ignorantly done this, meet with your agent and go through your home insurance coverage again. Reduce your coverage to the cost of your home and its contents minus the land's value.

Your premium will be less and you'll still have adequate coverage if you do this right. Because insurance is for valuables that can be lost or damaged, insuring the land which can neither get lost or damaged isn't right.

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2. You'll pay more or less depending on your credit history. The lower your credit rating, the higher the rates you attract. What your credit rating shows is how you have handled your bills and it speaks badly about you if it is a poor one. No insurer likes this as it suggests a behavior you are very likely to repeat in the payment of rates. This makes you less attractive to them and you, therefore, are made to spend much more than someone else with the same profile that has a very good rating.

It will, therefore, be a good step to do something about making your credit rating better. It will help you get more affordable rates among other things.

3. You will get lower rates if you elect to pay your rates annually and not every month. Your insurer is compelled to send you 12 notices for monthly payments as against one for annual payments. This increases their overhead.

Furthermore, each check you send attracts its own transaction charge too. They pay transaction charges 12 times instead of once annually for monthly premiums. And, if you really come to think of it, these additional overheads are ultimately added to your rates.

You will get reasonable savings if you choose to pay annually. What you'll save could be as high as 8.5% of your total monthly payments over the course of just one year.

4. A fire-safe home exterior will help bring down your rates. You'll do well if you don't have anything that's inflammable around your building. As simple as it seems, cutting back bushes and maintaining them up to 10 feet from your building will help reduce your premium. Fire-safety is a strong factor that is used to calculate what you pay as premiums.

5. You'll also get a discount if you have motion-sensitive lighting for your home's exterior. Burglars will keep off from places where their activities will be easily observed. And motion-sensitive lighting does just that. Since thieves avoid houses with such lighting, you lower your home's risk of burglary and, by extension, your rates.

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6. Make sure every door to the exterior has dead-bolt locks. This makes it hard for intruders or burglars to have their way. The more secured your home is against burglary, the less the risk involved in insuring it.

7. Having window locks on all your windows will help lower your home's risk of burglary. You will save even much more if you go further to have burglary-proof bars fixed on every window. Even though most people do not like this because it makes them feel like a prisoner in their own house, it really does lower your rate by a good amount. If you are not opposed to this have them fitted in your home and enjoy lower rates.
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